Ellington's hits give Derby blues

Bristol sound: Nathan Ellington is congratulated on his hat-trick at Pride Park

By Martin Smith

10:34PM GMT 06 Jan 2002

Derby (0) 1 Bristol Rovers (2) 3

NATHAN ELLINGTON is predictably known as The Duke in Bristol; after his hat-trick at Pride Park yesterday the blue half of the city would respectfully suggest the title is conferred on him permanently.

Ellington's goals not only bridged the 69 places between Bristol Rovers and Derby County, the comprehensive giant-killing also brought to life this season's FA Cup, which was suffering a lack of the romance demanded of third-round weekend.

Indeed it seemed that Dermot Gallagher, the referee, was suffering from a romantic block when he refused to hand over the match ball to Ellington at the final whistle. However, when Ellington appeared to share his thoughts in the press room a few minutes later he had the ball tucked firmly under his arm.

Related Articles

"The ref said he had to find out who scored the second goal before he credited it to me," said Ellington, 20. It would have been churlish of anyone to take that goal away from Ellington, even though it took a decisive deflection off Youl Mawene. It would also have spoilt a good story, and the Cup demands good stories.

Ellington's second hat-trick in 11 days - he scored three of the five that beat Leyton Orient on Boxing Day, Rovers' first win in 15 Division Three games - took his total for the season to 13, and that after missing 10 games with a knee injury. He was top scorer last season, and was courted by several Premiership clubs before Rovers signed him from non-League Walton & Hersham three years ago. The big boys will be back.

"The kid's not going anywhere at the moment," said Garry Thompson, his manager. "He's under contract for a couple of years. I'll be checking the details tomorrow morning. I want to keep him for as long as humanly possible. He has the potential to be anything he wants to be."

The subject of the day said: "There's always been talk about Premiership clubs being interested. It's now a case of them being a little bit more interested. It has always been my ambition to play in the Premiership. It was great to be out there playing against the likes of Ravanelli and Carbone."

"Nathan is the icing on the cake," Thompson added, "but I had 11 heroes out there today." However, once the euphoria of yesterday's result fades, the reality is of a fight to climb away from the foot of the Third Division. They are only seven points, and five places, clear.

On Wednesday night they travel across the city for an LDV Vans Trophy tie at Ashton Gate. "We'll be playing for the pride of Bristol," said Thompson. "Now Bristol City will want to take us down a peg or two."

The day had started with an insult: the public address announcer had welcomed spectators to "Derby County versus Bristol City". The theme of disregard continued early on when, in an attempt to silence the 6,602 Rovers fans at the southern end of the ground with their talismanic Goodnight, Irene, Derby fans asked: "What division are you in?" By half-time the taunt had been thrown back in their face; by the end it just seemed like a bad joke.

The goal that put the skids under Derby was pure route-one. Scott Howie collected the ball near his goal-line, ran through a crowded penalty area before punting the ball into the heart of Derby's retreating defence. Horacio Carbonari misjudged the bouncing ball, Mart Poom started to come, then stopped, and Ellington stole in to head over the stranded goalkeeper.

Colin Todd, the Derby manager, blamed that on basic defensive mistakes, as he did the second when Franois Grenet failed to keep track of Ellington, who twisted and turned, and then shot in off Mawene.

The third was the best. Ellington took Che Wilson's long pass on his chest, and hit the falling ball first time to the bottom left-hand corner of the net. It was all over bar collecting the match ball.

Howie saved instinctively from Malcolm Christie and Benito Carbone, and more thoughtfully from the same players, and was only beaten by Fabrizio Ravanelli's header two minutes from time.

Even that would have counted for nothing if substitute Mark Walters's shot had not hit the inside of a post and bounced out in time added on. Giant-killing? It would have been a landslide.